Human nature is a pesky thing. Because it's fallen, it can sometimes undermine or sabotage our work as apologists in ways that we easily miss. One of the ways this can happen is through triumphalism, defined as the spirit of arrogance or pride with respect to belonging to the Church. Not the proper sense of pride, a la "I'm proud to be Catholic," but the self-puffery sense, a la "I belong to the One True Church, and you don't." Whether subtle or overt, it’s lethal to the work of...

There is a newly published resource that every apologist will want in his library: Heinrich Denzinger's Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals. This reference book is a sorely needed English update to one of the richest compendiums of Catholic doctrine ever compiled.

Commonly referred to simply as Denzinger (after the German theologian who published it in 1854) this doctrinal compendium...

FRANK SHEED is an undisputed hero of English-speaking Catholic apologetics. In the years following WWI he was a star player for the fledgling Catholic Evidence Guild, which took the truths of the Faith to the streets (and most famously, to Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park) at a time when Catholics in England, the U.S., and elsewhere were not just part of a minority religion—they were...

Just before Christmas, a Catholic friend invited me to Los Angeles to speak with some dear friends of his who had left the Catholic Faith. Their Evangelical pastor joined us for what became a lively and lengthy discussion. I thought the dialogue went very well, but one exchange seems to stick out among the many we had over about four hours. When the topic moved to the assurance of salvation, the pastor declared with confidence, "St. Paul could not be clearer that we can have absolute...

I was recently asked to name the most common argument made by atheists today. I have to say, the atheists I’m in dialog with tend not to make arguments for atheism. Rather, they appear preoccupied with redefining their terms, maintaining that atheism is not a claim to knowledge but merely a suspension of belief.

This is incorrect. The way the term atheist is normally used, it refers to a person who...